Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Nov 21

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - November 21, 2003 * * *

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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full text of stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are available on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided below. (If the links don't work, just
manually type the URLs into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

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DIVINING LUNAR WATER

For centuries astronomers have known that the airless, Sun-baked Moon is dry.
But the discovery of craters with permanently shadowed floors near the lunar
poles raised an exciting possibility: Perhaps these dark hideaways contain
water ice that could be mined by future astronauts?

In the 1990s the Clementine and Lunar Prospector spacecraft implied that such
ice existed. The results were met with much fanfare in the media -- it appeared
that there was indeed ice on the Moon. But now scientists probing deep into the
polar surface with radar have concluded that lunar ice, if present, will be
more difficult to extract than some have proposed.

Theory says that it's tricky, but possible, to preserve water on the Moon....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1107_1.asp

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ROBERT E. FRIED (1930-2003)

Robert E. Fried, an active variable-star observer and founder of Braeside
Observatory, died last November 13th when the private airplane he was piloting
crashed about 40 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona. He was 72 years old....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1112_1.asp

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ASTRO NEWS BRIEFS

Send Your Name to a Comet

In December 2004, NASA plans to launch the Deep Impact spacecraft and send it
to Comet Tempel 1. Once it arrives on July 4, 2005, it will shoot a
370-kilogram (816-pound) impactor into the dirty snowball, making a crater some
7-15 stories deep. NASA is offering for the public a chance to have their names
written to a CD that will be placed on the impactor, thereby leaving their mark
on a comet.

If you'd like your name to be on Comet Tempel 1, visit the Deep Impact Web site
at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/sendyourname/index.html.

Massive Sunspots Return

The immense sunspot group that on November 4th ejected the largest solar flare
ever recorded has rotated around the Sun and is coming around for a second pass
toward Earth. As of November 18th, sunspot group 10486 had just on the eastern
limb, while another old group, region 10488, was already back into view. Region
10486 in particular remains active. It spouted another M-class flare on
November 18, prompting an aurora on November 20th.

Help NASA Spy a Comet

The Stardust mission will rendezvous with Comet 81P/Wild 2 on January 2, 2004.
When it does, it will collect samples of the comet and return them back to
Earth; they're due to arrive in 2006. But in the meanwhile, NASA is turning to
the astronomy community for some help. Scientists have no observations of the
comet since last May when 81P/Wild 2 went into conjunction with the Sun. From
December 15th to 29th, the object will be visible for about 30 minutes before
dawn. According to Stardust officials, the comet's apparent visual magnitude
will be approximately 12.8.

If you are interested in observing the comet for NASA, visit the mission Web
site at http://deepimpact.umd.edu/stsp/. You can obtain a high-accuracy
ephemeris from the JPL Near-Earth Object Program: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/.

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1108_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* New Moon on Sunday November 23rd
* Total eclipse of the Sun over Antarctica on November 23rd. Some of the
eclipse's partial phases are visible from Australia and New Zealand on the
morning of the 24th (local date).
* Venus is quite low in evening twilight. Look for it in the southwest not long
after sunset.

For details, see This Week's Sky at a Glance and Planet Roundup:

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/

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Copyright 2003 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin is provided as a
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*-----------------------------------------------------*
| Stuart Goldman |
* Associate Editor *
| Sky & Telescope |
* 49 Bay State Rd. Sky & Telescope: The Essential *
| Cambridge, MA 02138 Magazine of Astronomy |
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